User:Hurricanefan25/Judith

Hurricane Judith

Meteorological history
Judith's origins were from from an active easterly wave along the Intertropical Convergence Zone which advanced towards the Leeward Islands and Barbados on October 11, where it produced strong squalls. It traversed through the Caribbean Sea at 15 knots, and acquired an indistinct unclosed circulation on October 15 while positioned south of Jamaica. The system was accompanied by a somewhat cold trough, and began to deplete as an influx of high pressure developed in the Caribbean. A separate low-pressure area eventually formed in the Bay of Campeche, although it was generally unmoving, as a cold front over Texas meandered southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico. By October 16, the wave had moved into the Gulf of Honduras, while the system in the Bay of Campeche lost strength and the front dissipated.

Eventually the squalls began to weaken, although stronger squalls continued east of Jamaica. Soon thereafter the easterly wave was examined by air through reconnaissance, and it was predicted that the two systems would come together in the south-central Gulf of Mexico. An additional flight was scheduled to investigate the system during the following day. Despite reports of increasing atmospheric pressures within the vicinity of the disturbance, surface weather observations and aircraft data evidenced that a closed circulation was present, and was subsequently designated Tropical Storm Judith near 1200 UTC on October 17 just southeast of Cuba while it curved northeast.

Reports during the latter half of the day indicated that a new center was apparent 150 mi northeast of the previous center, maintaining winds of 50 mph (85 km/h). The tropical storm continued to rapidly intensify, and strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale early during October 18. However, this period of intensification was brief, and was soon followed by weakening as it approached the coast of western Florida; there is no explanation as to what caused the unexpected occurrence. Judith was being tracked through radar at the Weather Bureau's office in Miami, Florida and reconnaissance flights in the hours prior to its landfall; due to the lack of a wall cloud lining the eyewall, locating the storm's center was problematic. Eventually rainbands associated with Judith disorganized, simultaneously losing strength and its spiral appearance on radar.

The storm came ashore close to Boca Grande Island between 1300 and 1400 UTC, though since winds near the center, gusts were also weak. The storm re-entered a body of water–the Atlantic Ocean–around the Fort Pierce area, and another center formed slightly northeast of Great Abaco Island soon thereafter. Judith once again underwent swift intensification, and attained hurricane status while it sped east-northeastward near 1200 UTC on October 19, which occurred as a result of prevailing upper-level west-southwesterly winds. The strongest winds from Judith were originally measured along the southern fringe, but eventually wrapped around the rest of the hurricane. It reached its maximum winds of 80 mph (130 km/h) on October 20 while situated southeast of Bermuda, and gradually weakened while turning east — by October 21, Judith was a tropical storm, and it disspated 18 hours later while it curved east-northeast.

Preparations and impact
With the threat of an impending landfall, hurricane warnings were hoisted at 0130 UTC on October 18 extending along the Florida Gulf coast from Punta Gorda to the Cedar Keys, although after weakening was detected during its approach to Florida, they were downgraded to gale warnings at 1000 UTC.


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